Dear Editor: My letter regards the changes to the comprehensive plan and zoning of a parcel in Palo Alto. We citizens in the immediate neighborhood who will be most affected by increased traffic resulting from these changes have circulated two petitions to ask for a vote on said changes.

Some have mischaracterized our petitions as opposition to senior housing. This is totally false. Our two petitions state nothing regarding the proposed senior housing complex; we address only the change to the comprehensive plan and zoning for the affected parcel. The property on Clemo at Maybell is to be rezoned to planned community. This property presently is a low density area and directly abuts an R1 neighborhood and a city park. Our petitions request that we be allowed to vote on these changes.

Jean Wren,

Palo Alto

Village idiot

Dear Editor: In his latest public confession, Anthony Weiner admitted to even more bizarre perversions involving his private parts, social media and text messaging. Weiner, the lifelong Democrat, has thus become the poster child for the Peter Principle, which holds that “people tend to rise to their level of incompetence.”

Most appalling of all, Weiner has refused to quit the mayoral race, citing his desire to share his “vision” for New York with the 8 million-plus residents of the great city.

Earth to Anthony: You have already shared way too much with New York City and the world. Your vision is obviously based on perverted phallic obsessions.

Why not give Huma and the world a break? Zip up your pants, destroy your camera, cancel your Twitter and text accounts, and move into a position more in keeping with your intelligence and moral standards?

Rather than mayor, seek to be the official “Village Idiot” for New York City, a role for which you are very well qualified and have immediate name recognition.

John W. Lillpop,

San Jose

Nuclear weapons

Dear Editor: A July 20 letter by Phil Smaller stated, “I can almost guarantee that Israel will, as Mr. Singh suggests, sign a nuclear free zone treaty as soon as Hezbollah destroys its 60,0000 missiles pointed at Israel,” among other preconditions. An online search found a 2012 NBC News article titled, “Why Hezbollah is sitting on 40,000 rockets and missiles and sitting out the Gaza conflict.” Smaller’s 60,000 appears on some Internet sites with no justification, but either number includes more than missiles. The numbers include various types of short-range rockets, mortars and similar military ordinance. Furthermore, these are mostly stockpiled, not aimed at anyone. To aim them you need to load them into a launcher, and the number you can aim at any one time is constrained by how many launchers you have.

Smaller also needs to explain precisely what he would want Israel to do with nuclear weapons given that their use would undoubtedly kill large numbers of non-combatants not associated with Hezbollah in any way. What Smaller doesn’t realize is that if one country in this region has nuclear weapons, others will want them too. Tel Aviv and Tehran are 1,589 kilometers apart, giving a flight time for a ballistic missile of about 10 minutes. Does Smaller think that less than 10 minutes is enough time to decide if a radar glitch is an attack or a hardware malfunction?

In closed door talks, Sen. Dianne Feinstein agreed to a major new water policy for California that sells out the Delta and guts Endangered Species Act protections. Sen. Barbara Boxer is fighting the good fight to remove the rider from her comprehensive water infrastructure bill, but it may take a presidential veto.